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SynNotch: A USB Cord For Cells

February 23, 2016

If synthetic biology is trying to make cells more like computers, one thing that has been sorely lacking is input-output. It’s hard to get arbitrary information about the outside environment into cells. We do have some sensors that we can modify to sense different inputs, like chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) for T-cells, but they only […]

Towards Blood DNA Methylation as a Pan-Cancer Surveillance Screen

February 5, 2016

Early and less tedious cancer diagnosis can prevent future complications and improve patient outcome, however past studies have revealed that the markers of most cancers are as unique as snowflakes. An enticing solution for this heterogeneity would be to screen for any type of cancer using one detection system to ‘rule them all’. Differential DNA […]

MERA Uses a CRISPR/Cas9 Trio to Home in On Enhancers

February 4, 2016

Mapping the dark matter of the genome is no easy chore. Enhancers love to hide and often don’t act as expected. But thankfully, there’s a handy new CRISPR/Cas9 tool to fluoresce the genomes darkest regulatory secrets. The multiplexed editing regulatory assay (MERA) is a clever system that pushes back the limits of CRISPR/Cas9 as a […]

DNA Origami For Smart Membrane Channels

January 28, 2016

DNA is pretty great for a lot of reasons. There is the whole “central component of life,” of course, but DNA is also a pretty great building material. Making super-tiny, nano-scale objects seems like a really hard problem, but biology does this all the time. Life’s standard nano-brick is protein, but proteins are difficult to re-engineer, […]

DNA Methylation and Transcription Data from Single Stem Cells

January 28, 2016

Ever wanted to be able to do two things at the same time? Like work and have a social life? Eat pizza and still fit in your new purchases? Pat your head and rub your belly? While these highly important combinations remain almost impossible (at least for the EpiGenie staff), a stellar cast of scientists […]

RNA Hydroxymethylcytosine Targets the Messenger

January 28, 2016

A new paper adds another RNA modification to the list already published, but with exciting news for the epigenetics enthusiasts out there… the characterized modification is RNA 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmrC), an important mark previously discovered on DNA. The laboratory of François Fuks at ULB in Brussels decided to look deeper into the presence of 5hmC on […]

Viva in vivo Gene Editing: A Roundup of the Latest CRISPR Hits

January 28, 2016

Gene editing with CRISPR/Cas9 is here, there, and everywhere. We have seen gene editing in human somatic cells, pluripotent stem cells, and even embryos. However, we should also be looking at CRISPR-based gene editing somewhere else: in a living, breathing human. The question is – where does the current technology stand on the in vivo […]

Casilio: a CRISPR/Cas9 and Pumilio Hybrid for Epigenome Editing

January 24, 2016

Life is full of challenges, and when that challenge is epigenome editing even a rock star like CRISPR/Cas9 stands to benefit from helping a hand. Epigenome editing with CRISPR/Cas9 involves using a dead Cas9 (dCas9) that confers the precision of the genome editing system without nuclease activity. The standard approach involves utilizing a fusion protein […]

CRISPR Gene Editing Prefers the Naïve Side of Pluripotency

January 11, 2016

While many across the universe have been pondering over the decision between the light and the dark side of the Force, a more pressing decision confronts CRISPR-based gene editing in stem cells: the primed or the naïve side of pluripotency!? Pluripotent Stem Cells (PSCs), such as human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs), human embryonic stem […]

LobChIP: A Single Day ChIP-Seq Library Preparation Hack

January 9, 2016

With the speed and power of today’s high-throughput sequencers it seems that chromatin immunoprecipitation is the ‘limiting reagent’ in your ChIP-Seq reaction. Usually ChIP-Seq immunoprecipitation and library preparation takes 4 or 5 days, but now a talented team from Uppsala University in Sweden bring forth the library-on-beads ChIP (lobChIP) protocol, which wraps that up into […]